


Entrapment

by Otterly



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-04 16:49:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15845370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Otterly/pseuds/Otterly
Summary: Charlie and Anneke take a drive out to Bunnyburrow.





	Entrapment

“Anneke.”

“Charlie.”

Plates of food sat between them, still too hot to touch, and somewhere around the corner, the shower was running.

“Are you sure you want to do this? Completely sure?”

Her heart beat fast. Anneke willed it to stop.

Stop beating fast. Not stop entirely.

She nodded her head.

“The food smells nice,” Charlie said, after seeing her response, looking down at the arrangement of bug bacon, fried rice and tofu in front of her. “I’m impressed.”

“Thanks,” Anneke chirped. “Been takin’ cues from Avo.”

The shower stopped. The sound of the water running was replaced by the bathroom fan, and the charming hum of Wolter’s muffled voice singing softly to himself as he towelled off.

“He lives in Bunnyburrow, correct?”

“Yeah. 1632 Corn—“

“Cornfield drive, yes. Busy place?”

“Not at night.”

“All prey?”

“Basically.”

“Basically?”

“We won’t get seen.”

“…I suppose we’ll be in suits anyway.”

“What?”

Their ears perked in sync at the sound of a door opening.

Footsteps padded jovially down the small hallway to their right, eventually rounding the corner to reveal a nude — but dry — Wolter strutting towards them.

“Hey,” he greeted as he approached, taking a seat beside Charlie. A thought passed through his mind — visible in his face as his expression froze for a second — before he shrugged to himself, leaned over and kissed the side of the fox’s muzzle. “ _Heyyyy,_  he purred affectionately, hushed and intimate.

“We’re taking a day trip to Bunnyburrow tomorrow,” Charlie purred back, the slightest of smiles gracing her lips. “Just me and your sister.”

“That’s— _that’s cooool,_ ” he said, side-eyeing Anneke for confirmation.

The other aardwolf nodded matter-of-factly in response. “We’re gonna do it. Girl time. But no Avo and no Betty. Just us.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow,” the two girls answered in tandem.

“Oh. Can I come?”

“No,” they answered again.

A moment passed.

And then Wolter felt hungry.

“Let’s eat?” he suggested.

Anneke shrugged. “Sure.”

Charlie’s smile grew wider by a half inch. “Let’s.”

 

* * *

 

“So, how are we doing this?”

They weren’t burning rubber, per se, but Anneke always drove fast on highways. She hated them — reminded her of moving, and regret, and breakups. Best to be rid of them as fast as she possibly could.

Charlie lay beside her, curled up in her seat with her feet on the dashboard. “We wait until he’s asleep, then enter the premises and slit his throat with a knife.”

“Oh, god.”

“What?”

“I dunno. I thought that we’d just slip some rat poison into his coffee or somethin’.”

“Where would I have found rat poison?”

“I dunno!” her arms twitched, wanting to cross, but then she remembered she was driving. She gave the fox a quick glance through the corner of her eyes. “You have a lot of friends.”

“I do?”

“Probably! Can we talk about something else?”

“You brought it up.”

“Fine! How’s my brother in the sack?”

“He—“

“Nevermind. Have you been to Bunnyburrow before?”

“Once or twice. It’s a nice town.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Anneke murmured.

Some time during the talking, the trees had turned into golden fields of wheat and corn. They would be driving for at least an hour or so more, but it was comforting to know they were pretty much out of Zootopia, now. Soon enough they’d be driving back and this whole thing would be done with.

“I understand that you and Wolter lived in Bunnyburrow for some time.”

Anneke bit her lip. “Kind of. Yeah.”

“Do you miss it?”

“It’s not like you to ask things this much.”

“Your brother’s been educating me on purposeless small-talk.”

A rush of adrenaline spiked her veins — she was unconsciously speeding. Her foot eased up on the gas. “Pack Street is home now.”

“Mmm.”

Something in the vixen’s tone sparked Anneke’s curiosity, and she stole another glance to her side.

Charlie was looking right at her.

“Something on your mind?” she asked, looking back to the road. The hairs on her cheek raised up — alert but not anxious.

“You’ve never talked to me about Rasher until last night.”

“What’s there to say?”

“A lot, it seems.”

“Nothing you don’t already know. I should probably be asking _you_  things about _him_. I bet you know his blood-type.”

“O-Negative. Unfortunate he’s not a donor.”

“Just one of the many dickish things about the guy,” Anneke sighed. “I have decent taste in boys, I think. Rasher was just a bad decision.”

“And Cormo?”

“We never dated and he doesn’t deserve to have his name uttered in this car. What about you?”

“Me?”

“Your taste in boys.”

“I haven’t thought about it before,” Charlie said, going silent for a moment. “I couldn’t tell you.”

Anneke’s heart beat faster, to her confusion.

When the quiet turned palpable, a second later, Charlie spoke once more. “Are we doing this for the right reason?”

“There’s no right reason to kill someone,” said Anneke. “Only a bunch of decent or bad reasons.”

“Surprisingly insightful.”

 

* * *

 

The drive lasted not too long after that. Charlie made for surprisingly good company. She only talked when she needed to, or was expected to.

Unfortunately, though, they reached the town by midday, and the plan would only work at night.

So naturally, they went for ice cream and got a table outside, where they could people watch.

And be alone — all the customers were staying inside, where the AC was at full coldness, but Anneke had spent the last four hours in a van, and she needed air. And ice cream.

And _wow_ , bunnies knew how to make some _good_  fucking ice cream.

Her tongue hung out of her mouth in a hyperbolic, energetic pant of desire. “Can you believe that they have a pine tree flavor?”

“I find it harder to believe that you would want to try it,” Charlie remarked, staring ambiguously at Anneke’s frozen treat sitting pretty in its bowl, topped with chocolate shavings and green sprinkles that really didn’t taste like anything at all, even when the aardwolf tried to single them out and eat them alone. “You’ve shown aversion to strange food combinations in the past. Even when the food was without charge.”

“Would _you_ eat this?”

“I would try a spoonful, given the opportunity.”

Anneke nudged her bowl towards the fox.

“I rescind my earlier statement.”

She giggled, pulling it back towards her and taking a bite. “It’s good.”

“As you’ve said already.”

“So, are you going to marry my brother?”

“Excuse me?”

In a split second her demeanor had changed, her cheerful expression dulling into a sullen stare as she picked at her delicious bowl of ice cream. She leaned forward a little, a fraction of her mind surprised at the fact that she had taken Charlie by surprise. The fox’s eyes had widened — not a lot, but enough to be noticeable.

She cleared her throat. “Like, you have an end goal with everything.”

“That isn’t true,” Charlie asserted calmly.

“Let me reword: you have an end goal with most things.”

“Your brother…” the vixen began, a glare creeping into the light of her eyes. “Is not most things.”

Anneke glared back at Charlie, scarfing down the rest of her ice cream without taking her eyes off of the fox. When her spoon brought nothing but melted pools of sugary soup, she put it down and dabbed at her mouth.

And like that, she was smiling again. “Totally.”

“I see him.”

“What?”

“Behind you,” Charlie said, hushing her voice. “A few hundred yards. He doesn’t see us.”

“Who?” Anneke asked, going to turn her head, only for it to be held still by the fox’s surprisingly strong paws. Her lips pulled back on reflex, forming into a snarl as she angrily regarded the vulpine. “Ow! _What the hell?”_

“Rasher,” Charlie responded. “Heading to the tool shop over there, but we shouldn’t stay outside.”

The aardwolf’s eyes widened as her snarl dropped. “Let’s go inside, then.”

“That’s what I was going to suggest.”

 

* * *

 

Seventeen minutes later and the ice cream was done, and they hadn’t been spotted.

Naturally, though, since the opportunity has arisen, and it was mostly Anneke’s idea but Charlie had agreed to it, they decided to follow Rasher around as he went through his chores for the day.

“Why is he buying so many sweet potatoes?”

Anneke sighed. “He makes really good sweet potato mash. And fries.”

“Interesting.”

“Is it?”

Farther away stood Rasher in front of a farmer’s stall, getting a bundle of sweet potatoes to fill his second basket.

“Those must cost quite a bit.”

“Not if you’re friends with the farmer, and the farmer takes a few bucks off if you’re getting more than a dozen items anyway.”

“You seem to remember a lot about his daily life. How long were you together?”

The pig’s ears twitched.

His left foot took a step back.

And just as Rasher turned around the duo quickly ducked behind the wall they were peeking out of.

Safe from being caught, the aardwolf crossed her arms. “You really wanna know?”

“Of course,” Charlie said. “It’s only right.”

“Well, what don’t I have to tell you?”

“The details of your personal relationship. I assumed — correctly — that they would be easy to find on social media, so I dug up your old Furbook profile—“

Heat blazed angrily in Anneke’s chest. “You _fucking_ —“

“And then I wasn’t able to look into it, because your brother went to stop me,” Charlie finished. “And I let him.”

That gave her pause. Anneke blinked, exhaling a tense breath through her nose. “Fine…oh, he’s on the move. Let’s go.”

Rasher led the duo down a dirt road, clogged with bunnies rushing to and fro, and to the front of a bar, where he walked inside.

Luckily enough, there was a series of benches just far enough away from, and in full view of the place that the two of them could sit and chat, and not be completely conspicuous.

So sit and chat they did.

“Day drinking?” wondered Charlie, peering at the bar, labelled Bucky’s by a giant wooden sign hung over top. The windows to the place were open, but its blinders were drawn, and nothing but darkness could by seen through the uncovered corners of the glass.

“No,” Anneke answered. “His friend owns that bar. Gives him free limes.”

“I was under the impression he was making sweet potato mash.”

“He’s probably making key lime pie too.”

“Do you miss him?”

“I miss the pie.”

“You were recalling the details of your relationship.”

“Right!” Anneke said, surprising herself with how loud she was. “Well. We like fucked around for a few years and then suddenly we were dating. That’s it.”

“Similar to—“

“You know what? Let’s leave.”

“Leave Bunnyburrow?”

“No. Go back to the car and stay there and then _kill this fucker._ ”

Charlie’s response didn’t have the chance to form. She had turned to her side to find that she was alone.

The fox snorted out of her nose in frustration, wallowing in the silence a little longer before leaving to follow in her packmate’s stead, off towards the van parked halfway across town.

 

* * *

 

Not twenty yards away from them, Rasher’s house stood, quiet and decaying. And dark.

Because the lights were off. And also it was night.

“He’s sleeping now.”

“I agree.”

“What?” Anneke said. “Why?”

Charlie shrugged. “His work days last for ten hours. It’s now twelve o’ clock. I assume that he isn’t energetic enough to stay up this late without getting cranky—“

“He isn’t.”

“Hence my agreement,” she finished. “Let’s leave the car.”

“What, and risk someone seeing us? We’re parked right outside his house!”

“It’s midnight, as I iterated before. Are you embarrassed?”

From within the suit’s head, Charlie could just barely make out a set of aardwolf eyes glaring at her through the (slightly) oversized head of a black bunny.

Her own was of a sheep, eerily similar to Remmy Cormo, not on purpose, of course..

“What do _you_  think?” Anneke seethed.

“Predators in Bunnyburrow are worth noting, aren’t they?”

“Not really. Well, I mean, kind of.”

“It would be highly suspect for us to waltz into town and then leave directly after a murder occurred. Not to mention the fact that we didn’t have enough time this morning to swap this van’s license with a dummy one. Someone may have our plate. We should change it in the middle of the highway, and give it back”

“Okay, fine. Can we just get this over with?”

Charlie’s “yes” found itself overwhelmed the the sound of Anneke opening the car door and jumping outside, landing on both of her ridiculous looking padded bunny paws.

“Not too bad, actually!” the aardwolf exclaimed, lifting a foot up and wiggling her fake toes. “This is kind of fun.”

“Yes, well,” Charlie said, exiting her end of the car, a black suitcase firmly gripped in her paws. “It’s soon to be a lot of unnecessary trouble.”

“You getting second thoughts?”

Charlie stayed silent at that. She had to check on her tools. Her thumb nudged a button near the handle. A tiny ‘click’, and the suitcase was open.

She held it in front of her, peering into it’s depths with her skulking fox eyes.

Knife. Check.

Hammer. Check.

Lock kit. Check.

Aaaand that was it.

“Let’s go.”

“Finally!” said Anneke.

They advanced forward, towards the wooden fence that bordered the tiny shack that was Rasher’s home.

“Wait,” hushed Charlie as they breached the fence and waded into the initial walkway, a dirt trail that lead to the stairs that led to the front door.

“What’s up?”

“Do you genuinely want to do this?”

“Are you serious?” Anneke groaned, looking back at her. Her eyes — as poorly visible as they were behind the strange bunny mask — had a rebellious glint to them. She looked angry. Truly angry. And, to Charlie’s surprise, dangerous.

“I’m just still questioning your motivations.”

“What do _my_  motivations matter?” Anneke asked, stepping towards the fox.

The fox didn’t deign to step back, but her muscles tensed, ready to…to move, if anything happened. “They matter a great deal.”

“Not to _you_. You’ll do nearly anything as long as you get _paid,"_  the aardwolf seethed, pointing a finger accusingly at Charlie. “And I’m paying you a real big chunk of money, so if you want it at all, you’re going to get in here and murder this _stinking pig_  I used to know.”

Charlie tilted her head, feeling her ears twitch. “I noticed you test your phone’s video recording earlier.”

“I want to savor the moment.”

“Or catch me in the act.”

“Look, are you down to murder this asshole or not?”

“I’m not.”

Anneke’s eyes widened, and in the same second narrowed into a bitter stare. “You’re kidding.”

Charlie shook her head. “I want to know why you brought me here.”

“You _know_  why—“

“The real reason, Anneke.”

“God, you’ve got to be fucking—“

“I am not a _criminal,_ ” interrupted Charlie, cutting into the aardwolf’s response. Said aardwolf took a step back, aghast by the harsh tone in her packmate's voice. It wasn’t often that the fox got angry. Or opened her eyes wider than her usual squint — right now they were wide to be seen through the ridiculously oversized sheep’s head covering her own. Charlie lurched forward, tail fluffed and hackles raised. “I do not kill mammals on whims. I’ve never killed anyone, as a matter of fact. And your assumption that I would is extremely confusing, considering that we’ve known each other for years, at this point. I can’t say that your intentions of recording me had to do with the police, because you know enough about the law to realize that you would be considered an accomplice to murder, so, what’s left?”

A silence washed over them, thick and syrupy, weighing them both down and stilling their movements down to the inch. They stood like sculptures in an exhibit, each for the other to come alive at any moment.

Forever and a half passed before that moment happened, and the corsac fox relaxed her posture.

“In simpler terms,” Charlie said once more, quiet and hushed. “What’s your problem with me?”

Anneke hadn’t noticed, but her breathing was heavy and her arms were out. To do what, she couldn’t tell, but there was no more reason to lie.

She knew when she was beat.

“I guess I was wrong about you,” she said simply, and waited.

But she had to say more. Charlie would wait all night for answers.

“Wanna know something weird?” she tried again, phrasing the words light heartedly but not having enough in her to inject humor into her tone. “I’ve lived with him for my entire life. We’re the closest that two mammals can be without straight up combining or some shit. But I can honestly say that if I showed him a video of you murdering someone, I wouldn’t know what Wolter would do. I mean, would he keep quiet? Probably. But would he be okay with it? Or would he be disgusted?”

Anneke took her bunny head off, breathing in the cold country night air, letting it cool her lungs like a menthol cigarette. “I wonder what he would’ve done.”

Charlie reciprocated, shedding her disguise, no longer caring about their being seen.

“Why?” she asked, genuinely confused. “Jealousy?”

“Is this a TV show?” Anneke rasped. “No, I’m not jealous that you’re spending time with my brother.”

“Then answer my question.”

“God, it’s—“ the aardwolf stopped short, screwing her eyes shut before directing a fiery stare at Charlie. “It’s because there’s _nothing good that can happen with you._ ”

Charlie blinked. “I expect that you’re going to explain that remark further.”

Anneke felt a pressure on her, like she was balancing a dumbbell on the top of her head. Her face twisted into a snarl as she took another step towards Charlie, who this time took a reactive step back. “You waltz on over to our home, and you get him into some fuckin’ casual thing and then you — but now it’s,” she took a moment to exhale. “Now it’s all _fucked._  All you’re going to do now is _screw him up_  and I’m not gonna let that happen.”

Charlie’s eyes softened immediately. “Wolter’s in love with me.”

“He is,” she confirmed. The fire in her was fading now, dissolving into a cold, angry apathy. “How do you feel about that?”

“I don’t know,” the vulpine admitted. “Can’t I figure that out with time?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“ _Because!”_ hissed Anneke, feeling herself fall into another tangent before she realized that she didn’t have any more words left. Not if she wanted to keep justifying her fury.

“Anneke?” a male voice called from behind.

A chill spread through every inch of bone in the aardwolf’s body.

She turned around.

Rasher. Standing in front of his door.

“What are you doing here?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Who _gives_  a fuck what I’m doing here? _Fuck you!"_

“What the hell?”

“I have a theory,” Charlie stated, making Anneke turn to look at her. “I’ve gathered enough information today to assume that you’re projecting your own personal problems onto your brother.”

“Who the hell is this, Annie?”

“Shut _up,”_ said Anneke, to both of them.

The fox merely sighed, and continued, unperturbed. “You’re twins. That’s true. But he doesn’t share your life. He’s not due for the same pains you’ve had. Why do I have to remind you of that?”

“Just — quit talking,” Anneke hissed again. She turned back to the pig on at the top of the stairs. “And _you,_  get the fuck out of here.”

“This is my fuckin’ _house,_  bitch!”

“What happens to Wolter and I isn’t written in stone. Do you think I’m going to kill him?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know! _Fuck.”_

“Are those costu—“

“Shut the fuck  _up,_  Rasher.”

“I wouldn’t,” Charlie continued. “I don’t hurt other mammals for selfish gain. I would never intentionally hurt your brother. But it’s impossible to guarantee that we won’t end up hurting each other because that’s simply the nature of life. And if that were to happen — if we were to terminate our relationship, he’d survive. He would be okay. Like you are, right now. Anneke, we don’t know each other well, but you’re doing fine now despite whatever happened, aren’t you?”

And that was the truth, and it didn’t hit Anneke as much as it reminded her that it had been there all along, like a gaping wound she had somehow become numb to.

“I guess I am,” she said, looking down at her paws. “You got me there.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Rasher said, again.

“Let’s go home?” Anneke asked, a hopeful, embarrassed smile on her face.

“Let’s go,” said Charlie.

 

* * *

 

The road was clear and smooth and free of traffic, and it was like the car was being carried off by a purposeful breeze.

“Shit, we forgot to grab pie.”

“Wolter’s not going to be very happy about that.”

Up in the sky, the stars shone, getting slightly dimmer as they approached the city, but nonetheless making for a good spectacle for any who bothered to look.

“What are your plans with him tomorrow?”

“I was going to let him decide. Nonetheless, I’m going to have to inform him at some point that I’m interested in a long term relationship.”

Anneke blinked, vision sharpening into true focus for the first time in an hour, as she had started to pay less and less attention to the road the longer they were on it. Home was in visible sight, now. She couldn’t wait to get into bed.

And she wasn’t worried about anything else.

“That’s good,” she told Charlie. “I’m happy for you two.”


End file.
